What does an iron chancellor have to do to be loved these days? After scrambling 7,000 members of the Greek police force out of an early prepaid retirement for her brief, still inexplicable 6 hour visit to Athens last Tuesday, which caused the now usual Syntagma square rioting, Merkel next took the stage in a rainy Stuttgart, in a show of support for the local mayor candidate Sebastian Turner, which promptly devolved into 14 minutes of continuous booing.Watch below.

More pictures from the same rally, where people apparently were not too keen on WWIII:

Since it has now become the norm to spread myth, fairy tales and magic during the week, only to collapse the wave function of an insolvent “developed world” with a double dose of reality during the weekend when markets are conveniently closed (recall the Draghi in a Box phenomenon) only to repeat it all again the coming week, here is some more truth which may force Citi to hike its estimate of Greece leaving the Eurozone from 90% to 110% (or about how much of QE3 is now priced into the market): “Greece cannot be saved, that is simple mathematics,” Michael Fuchs, deputy leader of the parliamentary group of Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party told weekly business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.” Indeed, truth hurts, especially when accompanied by math. Which sadly is the problem these days in a world where math and surreality can no longer coexist. And sadly, in the absence of money growing trees, where one can create wealth out of thin air, not fiat dilution, disappointments such as these will only propagate until the game (over) theoretical equilibrium we discussed yesterday has no choice but to finally make its appearance.

“Greece cannot be saved, that is simple mathematics,” Michael Fuchs, deputy leader of the parliamentary group of Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party told weekly business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.

“The government has neither the will nor the means to implement reforms,” he said.

Not even the home will be safe from surveillance

Changes proposed to the law governing Germany’s federal criminal police operations would allow investigators to use wire taps and surveillance cameras in homes of innocent citizens to keep tabs on terror suspects.

Under the government proposals, federal police would be permitted to install “hidden technical equipment, that is to say bugs or cameras inside or outside apartments … if there is a pressing danger for state security,” interior ministry spokesman Stefan Paris said at a news conference on Friday, April 18.

“I would urgently like to stress that there are very, very strict conditions … and it is not the case that everywhere in this country secret cameras or listening devices will be installed in living spaces,” he said. “It is about terrorist threats that would be averted through preventative measures by the federal police.”

Be careful what you — and your friends — say at home

He added that such methods were already allowed in several German states. Continue reading »